BE YOUR DREAM

Just as the winter winds come and go,
so too the dreams that seek to be born.
Some come alive in truth
while others fall after deceit is near.
What is the heart’s desire
if not to be alive in love and longing
for the day when all arises
in beauty, and we believe
in all that we are,
beyond this physical form,
beyond these fears,
beyond all being into eternity.

On this solstice,
the energy of light returns
to guide us into what we wish to be:
to see, to taste, and live
as we set our intentions clearly,
and birth anew into possibility,
with dreams created from the heart.
We are told, you are what you dream.
Be all that is your dream and live into
the wholeness and the wonder of who you are—
light, cosmic love, and truth.
Within it all, be you.

(image: Winter Winds by Janis Dehler

“This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future.” 

-Margaret Atwood

“The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory.”

-Gary Zukav

“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”

-Pope John XXIII

The Light We Shine

Winter Solstice arrives,
we breathe a sigh,
light returns,
measured in seconds
until, once again, we
feel the joy
of illumination.

This season sings
of radiance,
candles are lit,
twinkle lights abound,
menorah, manger,
sun, all symbols for
our fascination.

Opening doors
hearts,
we find the light,
hidden within
all along, now bidden,
we are never without,
our true celebration.

A re-blog from Dec. 2022.

May we breathe peace into chaos, may we enjoy harmony in our encounters. Wishing us all joy in our days and serenity in our nights. May every day be seen as holy as we radiate light into this world.

Blessings and love,

Janis

The Light We Shine

Winter Solstice arrives,
we breathe a sigh,
          light returns,
measured in seconds 
until, once again, we
feel the joy 
         of illumination.

This season sings
of radiance, 
          candles are lit, 
twinkle lights abound,
menorah, manger, 
sun, all symbols for 
	  our fascination.

Opening the door
of our hearts,
          we find the light,
hidden within
all along, now bidden,
we are never without,
          our true celebration.

May we breathe peace into chaos, may we enjoy harmony in our encounters. Wishing us all joy in our days and serenity in our nights. May every day be seen as holy as we radiate light into this world.

Blessings and love,

Janis

Dormancy

On this gray light morning
in late Autumn, brown oak leaves
flutter in the gentle yet frigid breeze, 
appearing brittle in their shuddering.
The birch and maples stripped bare,
stand vulnerable in their solitude.

The perennials in dormancy, prepared
for dryness, cold, and a shortage of
needs met, brave the onslaught, holding 
out for the return of warmth, the promise 
of growth deep within their roots, 
wasting no energy, they wait.

Today, I accept my winter rest, 
acknowledge the quiet, ponder 
pruning needed as I look deep to 
the tap root, recognize what to release, 
what to accept, in seeking the sun within, 
the inner light of life emerging.

“You’d corner me in your conformity but even in dormancy I’m sleeping with enormity, stretching the belly of the earth & everything I was born to be.”

Curtis Tyrone Jones

“Giving credence to persistent intuitions awakens the dormant heart consciousness.” 

Steven Redhead

“Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.”

Johann Gottfried Herder

Ongoing Resource List: Reading fot the Heart and the Mind

  • The Gene Keys: Emracing Your Higher Purpose by Riuchard Rudd
  • Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Inform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
  • A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
  • Energy Speaks: Messages from Spirit on Living, Loving, and Awakening by Lee Harris
  • Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create an New One by Dr. Joe Dispenza
  • The Women by Kristin Hannah
  • Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe by Brian Thomas Swimme
  • The Mastery of Love, Don Miguel Ruiz
  • Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao, by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
  • God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, by Mirabai Starr
  • The Four Agreements: A Toltec Book of Wisdom by Don Miguel Ruiz
  • Mindfulness and Grief by Heather Stang
  • How We Live Is How We Die by Pema Chödron
  • The Bhagavad Gita, Translated by Eknath Easwaran
  • St Francis of Assisi: Brother of Creation by Mirabai Starr
  • Wild Wisdom Edited by Neil Douglas-Klotz
  • Earth Prayers From Around The World, Ed by Elizabeth Roberts & Elias Amidon
  • The Tao of Relationships by Ray Grigg
  • Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue
  • Unconditional Love and Forgiveness by Edith R. Stauffer, Ph.D.
  • Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance by Joseph M. Marshall III
  • Art & Fear by David Bayless & Ted Orland
  • Quantum-Touch by Richard Gordon
  • The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Persons Path Through Depression by Eric Maisel, PhD
  • The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
  • Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith by Kathleen Norris
  • Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality and Living by Janis Amatuzio
  • Personal Power Through Awareness by Sanaya Roman
  • Violence & Compassion by His Holiness the Dahlai Lama
  • Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
  • Devotions by Mary Oliver
  • To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue
  • Meditations From the Mat by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison
  • The House of Belonging: poems by David Whyte
  • Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness, by Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
  • Soul an Archaeology Edited by Phil Cousineau
  • A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield
  • Listening Point by Sigurd Olson
  • I Sit Listening to the Wind by Judith Duerk
  • Dancing Moons by Nancy Wood
  • The Soul of Rumi, Translations by Coleman Barks
  • Keep Going by Joseph M. Marshall III
  • Arriving at your own Door by Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
  • The Hidden Secrets of Water by Paolo Consigli
  • Conquest of Mind by Eknath Easwaran
  • Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
  • Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
  • I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) by Brene Brown
  • Practicing Peace in Times of War by Pema Chodron
  • When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
  • On Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
  • Unattended Sorrow by Stephen Levine
  • Joy in Loving, Mother Theresa
  • The Joy of Living by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
  • Let Your LIfe Speak by Parker Palmer
  • Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Nhat Hanh
  • The Essence of the Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran
  • Welcoming the Unwelcome by Pema Chodron
  • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through The Ways Of Animals by Jamie Sams and David Carson